Archive for AP

Morning Mika had to pivot to real news for a few minutes this morning, when the AP confirmed reports that two fighter jets were shot down in the Eastern Ukraine Wednesday morning.

If two fighter jets are indeed confirmed to be downed by Ground-to-air missiles, days following the tragic shoot down of Malaysian Air Fight 17 last week and hundreds of civilian deaths, the pressure on Putin mounts immeasurably with this latest violence on the ground.

Pro-Russian rebels have shot down two Ukrainian fighter jets, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military operations said on Wednesday.

The spokesman said the two were downed near Savur Mogila in eastern Ukraine. No details were known about the pilots.

The move comes less than a week after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which Ukraine and Western nations are blaming on pro-Russian rebels. Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was responsible for “creating the conditions” that led to the crash, but they offered no evidence of direct Russian government involvement.

Early reports also say that two crew members were aboard each fighter jet. For more details on the ground game of the past few days, Reuters went on to describe separatist activity and more rebel goals.

Residents said the rebels, who rose up in April demanding independence from Kiev in the mainly Russian-speaking east, had dug trenches in downtown Donetsk outside the main university, where they have been living in student dormitories.

Ukrainian government forces have pushed the armed rebels back to their two main strongholds, in Donetsk and nearby Lugansk, taking back control of villages and suburbs around them.Heavy fighting raged in the Lugansk region for a second day on Wednesday, said officials in Kiev and the rebels.

The discussion turned quickly to the European rift that exists because of their energy-dependency on Russia, Putin's bent on what appears to be more isolationist policy and the need for the West and President Obama to implement sanctions that have result.

Follow updates here at MSNBC throughout the day. They had done some reporting about a center near the Ukraine border getting a notable increase in activity that may prove that Putin continued to fund and support the rebels following the downing of MH17.

Reuters had just run this, at around 11:34 a.m. EST, when Tamron Hall broke in on her own expert on MSNBC (video below) to announce that the AP was officially reporting that it was not an unfortunate second Mayalsian Air crash … but that the 777 carrying just under 300 passengers, last mentioned as 'burning on the ground" was shot down by what is being reported as a 'Buk ground-to-air missile' on Reuters breaking crawl.

(Reuters) - A Malaysian passenger airliner with 295 people on board crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border on Thursday, the Interfax news agency cited an aviation industry source as saying.

The Interfax report said the plane came down 50 km (20 miles) short of entering Russian airspace. It "began to drop, afterwards it was found burning on the ground on Ukrainian territory," the unnamed source said.

This story was quickly amended by another breaking banner that the Buk launcher was seen by press members near the Eastern Ukraine town mentioned in the piece earlier today, Shakhtyorsk.

The plane appeared to have come down in a region of military action where Ukrainian government forces are battling pro-Russian separatists.

A separate unnamed source in the Ukrainian security apparatus, quoted by Interfax, said the plane disappeared from radar at a height of 10,000 metres after which it came down near the town of Shakhtyorsk.

Condolences to family and friends of all on board. If indeed this is a political miscalculation, it is one of tragic proportion.

When you can't win fairly, cheat. At least that's the impression of this breaking story from Virginia.

Here's the headline that was leaked to all the major news organizations: USA TODAY

Documents: Va. gov. candidate misled investigators

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Documents in a federal fraud case allege that Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe lied to a federal official investigating a Rhode Island estate planner now imprisoned for receiving death benefits on annuities secured on terminally ill people without their knowledge.

Now if you're observant, you'll notice this is sourced, AP.

Well, they seem reputable enough, so I'd say Terry McAuliffe has some 'splainin' to do. And this could shake his campaign and his steady but generally stagnant lead over Virginia Attorney General, Ken 'Kiss My' Cuccinelli. This could be the straw that breaks Terry's back and gives the Governor's mansion over to the anti-sodomy candidate, the Cooch.

But, all is not as it seems. This story, as soon after it was fact-checked was removed by AP.

My frustration with the Sunday political talk shows is through the roof. The guests rarely, if ever, include Progressives, and if they do, they are outnumbered by ConservaDems, conservative Republicans, or "moderates," so their voices are minimized, if not ignored completely(scroll).

That said, there are moments of truth and even levity that make their way into what passes for "debate."

Arianna Huffington:

"There's certainly an irony in having Karl, who is the Michael Jordan of politicizing the executive branch. You know let's go back to the firing of nine attorney generals during the Bush years, now being outraged... U.S. Attorneys, sorry..."

STEPHANOPOULOS: There's some question about whether Fox News, I think Karl Rove, actually got the subpoena or not. The Justice Department has a record of it being sent. Fox News said...

(CROSSTALK)

ROVE: Well let's be clear though. The -- Paul is referring to 9-13.400. These are the guidelines from the Department of Justice itself. It says, "The Department attorneys should take all reasonable steps to attempt to obtain the information through alternative sources, or means. They must first attempt negotiations with the media, aimed at accommodating the interests of the trial of grand jury with the interests of the media", they made no such attempt. "They must also precede any requests to subpoena the telephone toll records by having negotiations with the affected media", none of which they did.

These are the guidelines with the -- which the attorney general himself is responsible for...

(CROSSTALK)

ROVE: Well, look yes. I -- I do think so. He's got two problems. One problem is, when he signed the Rose affidavit, he did not abide by his own guidelines. Second, the defense they're offering for it, which was offered by Jay Carney that we're, conflating a subpoena with a prosecution means that what they said -- this was, remember of a criminal conspiracy when they sought the subpoena from the third judge they attempted to get it from, and finally got it from, was not where they didn't really intend ever to prosecute him.

So they were lying to the judge. And then the third one is -- the third problem he has is, on the 15th of May, he says before the House of Representatives under oath, in front of the Judiciary Committee, this is something I'd never contemplate. And on the 17th we learned that he did the Rosen -- the -- the Rosen...

PLOUFFE: I don't think he should go over this. I think if anything, he's guilty of over-zealously trying to uphold the law. And I think we all -- I think this is going to be a helpful process, which is how do we balance in -- in 2013, some of these guidelines go back to 1980 before the internet and email. How do we balance the need to protect national security and secrets, and our interests with the public's right to know, and investigative journalism? I do find out curious that the loudest Republican voice is now calling for the attorney general to go.

Were the same ones a year ago saying, we weren't investigating leaks strongly enough. They wanted a special prosecutor, because they said U.S. attorneys would not be tough enough. And so I think their objections lay less in the principle and substance of this, than almost a Pavlovian response. That if they have an opportunity to take political shots at the administration and the president, they'll...

(CROSSTALK)

HUFFINGTON: There's certainly an irony in having Karl, who is the Michael Jordan of politicizing the executive branch. You know let's go back to the firing of nine attorney generals during the Bush years, now being outraged... U.S. Attorneys, sorry...

(CROSSTALK)

HUFFINGTON: You know, I agree with you that Holder has to go. But there is a certain irony in the Republican doing...